Archive for January, 2010

Mother

Could this be the year Korea wins the academy award for Best Foreign Picture?

With official submissions from each country already announced and less than a month until the short-listed candidates are revealed, the timing seems perfect to pose the question.

The Korean film vying against ninety-odd films for the pinnacle of international (read: American) recognition for the year 2010 is a taut little suspense/thriller called Mother* (2009), directed and co-written by Bong Jun-ho. Bong has already proven himself in his homeland as a filmmaker that can reach mass audiences and critics alike. His 2006 release The Host (Gwoemul – more accurately translated as “Monster”) is the top grossing Korean movie of all time. Bong is also responsible for Memories of Murder, (Sal-in-ui Chu-eok, 2003) one of the finest examples of Korean cinema to date, which I can assure you will be discussed in a future article on this site.

Whilst perusing one of the murkier corners of the internet the other day, I happened across a short interview with an unrepentant zoophile. The video featured a middle-aged American woman sitting on a sofa with her massive, exposed breasts resting somewhat sadly on her belly. Her general manner overall, however, was quite chirpy as she fielded questions from her interviewer (and presumed husband/partner) about their shared goals in life. It wasn’t so much an interview, you see, as a recruitment video for the purpose of meeting other zoophiliacs. As far as I can see, there is no strict rule on the correct term for someone who has sex with animals. I prefer to use “zoophiliac” as the suffix “-iac” manages to invoke the idea that there is something inherently maniacal about people fucking their furry little friends. “Zoophile”, although more commonly used, is a touch too impartial. Read the rest of this entry ?

James Cameron’s completely immersive spectacle “Avatar” may have been a little too real for some fans who say they have experienced depression and suicidal thoughts after seeing the film because they long to enjoy the beauty of the alien world Pandora.

A common reaction to the above will be incredulous disgust. Frankly, I think it’s fucking brilliant. If I was James Cameron I’d be overjoyed at the idea that my technoporn epic had landed in the collective subconscious of the young and dumb like a giant psychic emo-bomb. Many filmmakers could spend their entire careers hoping to have their work affect people in that way and I imagine very few would foresee that a film like Avatar could pull it off. Read the rest of this entry ?

Those of you who have been following the previous lists should have foreseen the inevitable arrival of this latest piece. What you may not have foreseen, however, is the overwhelming and ineluctable power of nostalgia that would dominate and shape the list that covers the period of my childhood. The criterion of choosing films based on their wider cultural and cinematic impact is heavily subdued here, mainly because I was too young to make such considerations at the age that I saw most of these films and completely fell in love with them. The choices below have been selected primarily based on my personal enjoyment and, of course, the fact that I have seen them. As an honest and accurate reflection of this, the hardcore sci-fi action movies of the 1980s are massively overrepresented. Some obvious “Cins” will also be on display and that can’t be helped. As a child, I was in no hurry to see Gandhi or Amadeus, I’m afraid. Read the rest of this entry ?

At the 2009 Cannes Film Festival the Ecumenical Jury awarded its first ever “anti-award” for what it declared was “the most misogynist movie from the self-proclaimed biggest director in the world”. The Prize of the Ecumenical Jury was established by Christian filmmakers in 1974 to “honour works of quality which touch the spiritual dimension of our existence” and it appeared that Antichrist, the latest film from the Danish director Lars Von Trier, wasn’t quite what they had in mind.

Written and filmed amidst a bout of near-crippling depression that the oft provocative Von Trier experienced, Antichrist stars Willem Dafoe and French actress Charlotte Gainsbourg as an unnamed grieving couple who retreat to a cabin in a forest as a means of therapy to deal with the accidental death of their infant son. Alas, the forest isn’t as nice as it sounds. Some ominous acorns and a talking fox turn up to unsettle some shit, the desperate sex between the couple goes from unsettling to downright fucked, and then things get all freaky and nasty……. Read the rest of this entry ?

A full week of twenty-ten in the bag, it’s high time things got restarted around here.

Alas, my computer is indulging in one of its annual periods of malfunction, neatly coinciding with a post-Christmas lack of funds and a period of holidays whereby I will be home and not in front of a work computer. I would very much love to maintain the success of December (when traffic on the blog was greater than the preceding four months combined) so, naturally, there is another lazy, easily assembled movie list in the works. Just hope the home laptop, at the grand old age of four years, can handle the demands that will be made of it.

In the meantime, with a new decade upon both myself (recently turned 30) and the Gregorian calendar, let’s get the Gibber On!